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Harry A. Longabaugh
| Name:
Harry A. Longabaugh |
| Aliases:
The Sundance Kid, Harry Alonzo, Harry Place, Enrique Brown,
H.A. Brown, Frank Smith, J.E. Ebaugh, J.E. Thibadoe, Frank
Jones, Frank Bozeman, Harry Brown, Frank Boyd
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| Date of Birth:
Spring 1867 |
| Location of
Birth: Pennsylvania |
| Occupation: Outlaw |
| Spouse: Etta
Place (Probable) |
| Affiliations:
The Wild Bunch, |
| Date of Death:
Multiple - Disputed |
| Cause of
Death: Multiple - Disputed |
| Location of Death:
Unknown |
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The man who would
become a legend as the Sundance Kid was born in the Spring of 1867 in
Upper Providence Township, Pennsylvania. Harry A. Longabaugh was the
youngest of five children born to Josiah and Annie Place Longabaugh.
In 1882, Longabaugh
left home to travel west with his cousin George Longenbaugh. After
settling in Durango, Colorado, Harry worked with his cousin raising and
breaking horses. The family later moved to Cortez, Colorado, taking Harry
along with them.
Donna Ernst, author of
Sundance, My Uncle, believes that Longabaugh could have met Butch Cassidy
during his time in Cortez. Cassidy, Matt Warner
and Tom McCarty were known
to frequent the area around this time and the chances the future partners
could have met are pretty good.
Longabaugh worked as a
ranch hand in Cortez for a couple years before hooking up with the N Bar N
Ranch in Miles City, Montana. Unfortunately for Longabaugh, after a pair
of particularly harsh winters, he was laid off.
Longabaugh ventured
into the Black Hills area seeking work, but had no luck. Giving up on the
area, Longabaugh headed back towards Montana when he made a fateful stop
in Sundance, Wyoming. On February 27, 1887, Harry Longabaugh stole a horse
and saddle outfit from Alonzo Craven and a pistol from Jim Widner, both of
the 3V Ranch in Sundance.
Two weeks later,
charges were filed against the young thief and a warrant issued for his
arrest. Crook County Sheriff James Ryan arrested Longabaugh in Miles City,
Montana on April 8, 1887. Rather than transport Longabaugh directly to
Sundance, Ryan took the young outlaw on a train bound for St.
Paul, Minnesota. While on the train, Longabaugh managed to escape.
Inexplicably,
Longabaugh returned to Miles City, the location of his first arrest. And,
as fate would have it, he is arrested again, this time by Sheriff Eph K.
Davis with assistance from Stock Inspector W. Smith. While being held in
the Custer County jail, Longabaugh attempts to make another escape with no
luck.
The June 7, 1887
edition of the Daily Yellowstone Journal published an unflattering article
about the young outlaw comparing Longabaugh to Jesse
James. Offended, Longabaugh wrote a letter to the editor that was
published in the June 9, 1897 edition of the paper.
Sheriff Ryan picked up
Longabaugh for the second time on June 19, 1887. This time choosing the
more direct route when transporting his prisoner back to Sundance.
Longabaugh was indicted on three counts of Grand Larceny on August 3, 1887
– one count each for stealing the horse, stealing the saddle outfit and
the theft of the gun. Represented by local attorney Joseph Stotts,
Longabaugh pled guilty to the charges of horse theft in return for
dropping the other charges two days later on August 5, 1887. Judge William
Maginnis sentenced Longabaugh to 18 months in prison. Rather than serve
time in state prison, Longabaugh severed his sentence in the Sundance
jail. From that point forward, Longabaugh would come to be known as the
Sundance Kid.
On May 1, 1888 Sundance
attempted to escape from jail with another prisoner, Jim O’Connor.
O’Connor succeeded in the escape, Sundance was overpowered by a guard
and failed. Despite the escape attempt, Crook County prosecutor H.A.
Alden, successfully petitioned Wyoming governor Thomas Moonlight to pardon
Longabaugh. The day before his scheduled release date, on February 4,
1889, Longabaugh was pardoned.
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